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What do Abe Foxman, Benjamin Cardozo, Eleanor Roosevelt, Abba Eban have in common?

By Ami Eden · May 26, 2008

Abe gives the speech at this year’s Y.U. graduation...

Commencement Address of Abraham H. Foxman, National Director, Anti-Defamation League

Yeshiva University

New York City, May 22, 2008

First, let me say how honored I am to receive this degree from so distinguished an American Jewish institution.  Yeshiva University stands alone in the United States as an academic center whose undergraduate and graduate programs richly integrate Jewish ethical values with research and scholarship of the highest order.

Now, if I were truly modest, I would resist the impulse to say that I am also frankly moved to be an honorary degree recipient who joins an amazing roster of previous such recipients.  Justice Benjamin Cardozo.  Eleanor Roosevelt.  Abba Eben, to name just three.  As you see, I have not resisted.

Dear Yeshiva graduates of the class of 2008, we live – you live – in interesting times.  And you will live through ever more challenging moments as the 21st century progresses.

Of course, like many commencement speakers at graduation ceremonies around the country, I could use this occasion to speak to you about current issues that confront America.  More specifically, for this great institution with its distinctly Jewish character, I could speak to you about issues of the moment important to us as American and as Jews:  terrorism, Iran, the separation of Church and State, hate on the Internet, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, race and religion in politics, Islamic extremism, American anti-Semitism, global anti-Semitism.

But I would rather speak to you personally today about my own life journey and how the lessons I take from it might apply to your own upcoming adventure, for you stand on the brink of a future that is characterized by great promise, but also great perils.

I was born in the wrong time at the wrong place for a Jewish kid.  Nazi-occupied Poland in 1940 was not the best place to be born, yet I managed, by the intercession of one special person’s kindness and decency, to survive.

As I grew older, I tried to understand what it meant that I had survived.  The first set of questions was very serious, existential questions of “why?” Why did the Shoah happen to the Jewish people?  Why did over a million and a half Jewish children perish?  Why was the world silent?  Why didn’t the Almighty intervene? To those universal questions of “why?” were added very personal questions.  Why me?  Why me and not the other little boys and girls, the Chaims and Chanas.  Why not them?  Why me?

My parents, who also survived, struggled every day and every night with “why?” Why did they survive and not their brothers, their sisters, their nieces or nephews, their aunts and uncles?

There are no answers.  As I grew older, I realized that there are no answers, only questions.

But two facts in that struggle to understand became very, very clear.  One is that the world knew. There was no CNN, there was no Fox News, there were no satellite feeds from far off places – alas, there was no Internet – yet the world knew.

Those in positions of power to make decisions to stop what was happening knew.  They knew everyday how many Jews were killed, in Lodz, in Baranowicz, in Minsk, in Bialystok.  They knew.  And for years previous they knew what was happening to the Jews.  “Kristallnacht” made the news.  And they didn’t do very much about it, nor about the worst that was to follow.

So the first lesson for us is to know.  To know about bigotry; to know about hatred; to know who it is who threatens us, our democracy, and our freedoms.  It is extremely important that we know.  But knowing is not enough!

The second thing that became clear to me is that wherever and whenever and however good people said no – whenever good people stood up and said no to hate – Jews lived, others lived.

There was Oskar Schindler who saved 1200 Jews.  There was Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish diplomat, who saved 50,000, maybe 100,000 Jews.

There were Albania and Bulgaria.  It was in the Balkans that a magnificent chapter of humanity was written – not in the capital cities that always provided us with philosophy, with music, with opera, and with art, but in the Balkans!

Bulgarian Jews were saved because from the king to the patriarch, to the peasants, to the parliamentarians – they all said no.  Albania saved all its Jews and those from elsewhere who could make it to their country.

I stand here tonight because there was a lady who could barely read and write, who really didn’t sit down to weigh and measure the risks, and yet risked her life every single day for four years to protect the life of another human being. I had the good fortune to be sheltered from the Nazis by Bronislawa Kurpi, a brave and decent woman who was my Polish Catholic nanny.  She baptized me and raised me as a Catholic.  But for her, I would not be alive today to bear witness.  I know first hand how essential it is to have the help of just one person who, at a moment of moral collapse, does not forget the essential principal of leading a moral life: do unto others as you would have others do unto you.

And so I stopped asking the questions of why and began to ask questions on the order of “what if?”

What if, instead of one Raoul Wallenberg, there had been 100,000 Raoul Wallenbergs?  What if, instead of one Oskar Schindler and one Bronislawa Kurpi, there had been 10,000 such men and women?

What if this wonderful country of ours had permitted the passenger ship the St. Louis to dock at these shores and unload its cargo of refugees?  What if we had bombed Auschwitz?  What if our neighbor to the north, Canada, had found room for 5,000 Jewish orphans?  What if?  What if we had traded trucks for Jews?  What if? What if?

For me, the Anti-Defamation League is an institution that does everything so that our children and grandchildren will never have to ask “what if?” in the future.

What if their parents and grandparents stood up every single day to say no – no to hatred, no to bigotry, no to prejudice, no to racism, no to anti-Semitism?

You can see all kinds of films, you can read all kinds of testimonials, but that’s what ADL is all about.  In the rich mosaic of diversity that is the United States, where Jews and Judaism flourish, we have to find ways to live together and grow together and learn together how to choose our words carefully and to understand the power and danger of words, and to take responsibility for the words we utter and their consequences.

The gas chambers did not begin with bricks – they began with words. Ugly, hateful words that demonized, degraded, and debased Jews.  And those words became ugly, hateful deeds.

The September 11 attacks did not begin with planes transformed into missiles – it began with words – ugly, hateful words that demonized, dehumanized, debased Americans and everything that we stand for.  Those words became ugly, hateful deeds.

We need, in every way, to denounce those who traffic in fear and frustration.  We need to cleanse our communities of prejudice.  We need to speak up and speak out and protest when anyone is maligned or treated with contempt, no matter who the victim or the perpetrator.  It isn’t easy, it takes courage.  It runs the risk of peer disdain or disapproval.  Every time we laugh at an ethnic joke or a racial slur or religious stereotype, or let an expression of contempt pass in silence, we tacitly contribute to the atmosphere of prejudice.

In the Jewish tradition, we believe that life and death is in the power of the tongue.  Three times a day, we ask the Lord to “keep my mouth from speaking evil.” On Yom Kippur, we confess and seek atonement for the sins we have committed “with utterance of the lips.”

At the Anti-Defamation League, we deal constantly with words.  We believe in the power of words, in power of good people to stand up and say no.

Unfortunately, among the perils you will face in this still new century are reversions to the tribalism, xenophobia, and nihilism that so blackened the previous one.  In our era of rapid change and globalization, when traditions are under threat amid social, economic, and political instability, there is the strong temptation to “circle the wagons” and seek safety only among one’s own kind.  This inwardness, pushed to extremes, will inevitably result in fear of the Other – living in the desperate conviction that other people, other groups, other races and creeds, are somehow responsible for the problems within one’s own community or one’s country.  This then justifies the use of crude names that single out those who are different, and after the name calling comes the assigning of blame.

And we know all too well that when fingers get pointed, the oldest and most persistent hatred, anti-Semitism, will rear its ugly head as it has in the wake of 9/11.  I’m talking of the 9/11 conspiracy theories, the Big Lie believed by millions – that the Jews and the Mossad were behind the attacks on the World Trade Center.  I’m talking of Holocaust denial which is gaining strength in the Islamic world, led by Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and used by him to deflect attention from domestic problems and discontent.  I’m talking of the conspiracy theories of Jewish power and disloyalty which are being disseminated not only in the Islamic world but in the U.S. as well.

So among the challenges you will certainly face – as Jews, as Americans, and as citizens of the world – is how you will respond when those first ugly words are spoken, those words that will belittle and demonize first one person, and then a whole group or community.

“Never Again!” is an 11th commandment etched in the aftermath of Auschwitz.  It was etched by the Jewish people based on a Jewish experience.  But “Never Again” – that pledge, that imperative – has a universal message and mandate.  For all of us here today must honor the commandment which instructs us all to never again be silent whenever anyone lives in fear, in danger, isolated or singled out because of the color of their skin, their ethnic origin, their religion, their sexual orientation, or anything that makes them different from the rest.

Do that – respond with words backed by reasonable action, and both words and action impressed with the full weight of the ethical values imparted to you by Jewish tradition.  Do that and you will answer the question “What if?” by being one of many who will give hateful words and hateful deeds no quarter. You will do tikkun olam.  You will help repair the breaks and schisms of our world.

0 Comments | Share This | Community, Hate, Shoah

‘Ink’ star sends hateful kiss-off to Jewish boss

By Daniel Sieradski · February 11, 2008

TMZ

Reality television star/tattoo artist Kat Von D raised some eyebrows this past week, when news surfaced that the illustrated woman had sent her former Israeli-born employer, Ami James, an autographed photo some months ago bearing a swastika and the invective “burn in hell Jewbag.”

James’ tattoo parlor is the subject of The Learning Channel’s popular reality program Miami Ink.  The show propelled the 26 year-old Von D (born Katherine Von Drachenberg) to stardom and landed her her own spin-off series, LA Ink.

TMZ reports,

Upon being fired from “Miami Ink” last year, tattoo artist Kat Von D allegedly signed a photograph addressed to her former boss, Ami James, and drew a swastika and a flaming Star of David on it. Subtle, no?

TMZ has obtained the photograph in question, a headshot of Kat that reads, “Burn in hell Jewbag.” No one witnessed Kat write the message, but Chris Garver, another tattoo artist on “Miami Ink,” tells TMZ Kat personally handed him the photo.

When Ami, who is Jewish, received the photo, sources tell us he went to TLC and was rebuffed. We’re told after Ami had a lawyer intervene, TLC went to a handwriting analyst who concluded “there is a 99% probability that Kat Von D” wrote the message. In early July 2007, Avi’s lawyer went to TLC with the analysis. They simply sent him a letter back that acknowledged receiving the results and said, “We trust that this information will be kept strictly confidential.”

Kat’s spinoff show, “LA Ink,” premiered a month later.

Both TLC and Von D deny the allegations, Von D telling reporters: “The recent accusation of a publicity photo of me with offensive and anti-semitic comments and graphics allegedly written by me is completely false and unfounded, and clearly a forgery.” She added, “I always have been, and will continue to be an advocate for tolerance of all races, religions and ways of life.”

0 Comments | Share This | Hate, Pop Culture

Dobbs calls ADL a joke, Olbermann calls Dobbs worst person in the world

By Ami Eden · February 7, 2008

Just to recap: On Monday night, in a debate with Janet Murguia of the National Council of La Raza, Lou Dobbs accused the ADL of being an “absolute advocate group for open borders and amnesty for illegal aliens.” Then he took another shot:

Well, on Thursday night, MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann fired back, giving his daily “Worst Person in the World” award to Dobbs.

8 Comments | Share This | Hate, Immigration, Jewish Orgs, video

MSU’s best little hate house in town

By Jacob Berkman · February 7, 2008

Southern Poverty Law Center

The MSU-YAF was reportedly simply a fairly right-wing conservative group, until MSU junior Kyle Bristow became its chairman in 2006.

Since then Bristow, according to the Intelligence Report, has pushed it over the racist edge.

In November 2006, the group held a “Straight Power” demonstration in Lansing to protest proposed local legislation to protect gays, lesbians and bisexuals. Protesters carried signs reading “End Faggotry” and “Go Back in the Closet,” according to the IR.

The group has also held such patriotic events as “Catch an illegal immigrant day” and a “Koran Desecration” competition.

Here’s the kicker: Bristow and other group members like to wear black cowboy hats, which means if you’re at MSU’s campus and looking for MSU’s Chabad rabbi, you might go terribly, terribly wrong.

1 Comment | Share This | Hate, On Campus

Lou Dobbs calls ADL “a joke”

By Daniel Sieradski · February 6, 2008

In the midst of an on-air debate Monday night with Janet Murguia, an immigrants’ rights activist from the National Council of La Raza (which recently launched a campaign to combat hate speech against immigrants), CNN’s Lou Dobbs called the Anti-Defamation League “a joke” and an “absolute advocate group for open borders and amnesty for illegal aliens.”

The ADL, which was cited by Murguia as “an outstanding organization,” has previously chided Dobbs for “spread[ing] false propaganda about how immigrants are harming the United States.”

The ADL has yet to comment on Dobbs’ remarks.

Video here. Transcript here.

(Hat tip to Greg Siskind.)

6 Comments | Share This | Hate, Immigration, Jewish Orgs

Some of my best friends are named Schneider

By Ami Eden · December 13, 2007

‘Tis the season for the war against the war on Christmas, so we weren’t surprised to receive a press release from the Catholic League’s president, Bill Donohue, listing about a dozen examples of “multicultural monsters” censoring holiday displays. What did catch our eye, however, was this item on the list: “A Jewish public official in Wisconsin wants to rename the state Capitol Holiday Tree the Christmas Tree, but is being opposed by the Freedom From Religion Foundation.”

The Catholic League was talking about Marlin Schneider, a state representative from Madison – the very same Marlin Schneider who went to bat for naval veterans demanding a congressional investigation into Israel’s attack on the U.S.S. Liberty during the 1967 war.

Hmmm.

As it turns out, Schneider is not Jewish.

But he does like Jews, which is why he was so baffled by all of the hoopla over his efforts on the U.S.S. Liberty issue:

The Liberty veterans believed that the attack on their ship was deliberate and not friendly fire, and that it had been covered up by the United States Navy and the State Department for years because of fear of reprisals by influential people who would bring down any politician with the audacity even to ask questions about the attack. Some of the people who later talked to me both within and outside our own capitol warned me to beware of massive political contributions against me and even potential assassination. I laughed that off because I have never been anti-Israel and, in fact, the people who got me to run for office in the first place in 1970 were Jewish constituents whom I admired because in the 1950s they had taken on Sen. Joseph McCarthy right here in central Wisconsin. Moreover, one of my former assistants was the daughter of a rabbi incarcerated at Buchenwald who now works for a Jewish organization in New York City. I also thought that a lowly state legislator was too small a potato for anyone really to care much about.

It turns out that the Catholic League misread this story, which identifies Schneider’s pro-Christmas Tree spokesman, as a Jew:

“A rose is a rose is a rose,” said Schneider spokesman Michael Schoenfield in the article. “Whatever you call it, it is going to be a Christmas tree, so call it what it is.”

While opponents to the resolution said by using the word “Christmas,” it is offensive to non-Christians, Schoenfield said he disagrees.

“As a Jew, I have a problem calling it a holiday tree,” he said in the article. “It’s not my holiday.”

While we’re on the topic … Schneider from “One Day at a Time”:

Jew or not a Jew? I’d say no. But that was actor Pat Harrington Jr. sitting at Larry David’s seder table in Season 5, Episode 7 of “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” (Thanks to my wife for that pickup.)

0 Comments | Share This | Christianity, Hate

Foxman & Sharpton

By Ami Eden · November 5, 2007

For those of you who read through my entire Q & A with Abe Foxman, this will be hard to believe: There was actually some stuff that didn’t make it in. One line was his claim that James Traub and The New York Times Magazine had tried to undercut his credibility by comparing him to Al Sharpton.

“It’s tempting to compare Abe Foxman with Al Sharpton, another portly, bellicose, melodramatizing defender of ethnic ramparts,” Traub wrote in his profile of Foxman last January. “But you never feel that Foxman is admiring his own performance, as you do with Sharpton.”

The P.S./punch line to all of this? Foxman and Sharpton issued a joint statement last week “regarding the series of recent displays of nooses and swastikas in our community”:

The recent epidemic of nooses and swastikas appearing in various places in our communities are acts of hate and are intended to intimidate and instill fear. Such acts are despicable, and we call upon all people of good will – of all races, religions and ethnicities – to stand up and say such acts will not be tolerated.

Together we call for swift passage of proposed legislation to modify the existing New York state law which prohibits the depiction of a swastika on someone’s property, to similarly prohibit the public display of a noose with the intent to threaten or harrass. Nooses, like swastikas, are remnants from a tragic period of history, and the impact of their display still resonates deeply in our souls and in our communities. They cry to their intended targets, “You still do not belong!”

We must encourage an open and honest examination of the underlying hatred and potential for violence that these recent rash of incidents represent. They are attacks against not just a person or a group but against democracy and pluralism.  We must use these incidents to educate people—especially our youth—about the consequences of racism, anti-Semitism, and all forms of bigotry and prejudice.

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Jewish Dems go Coulter on Huckabee

By Ami Eden · October 29, 2007

If the National Jewish Democratic Council is so steamed over Ann Coulter’s saying that Jews need to be perfected by embracing Christianity, then why has it released a cartoon mocking the religious views of GOP presidential hopeful and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee?

Yes, as the NJDC notes in its accompanying press release, back at a debate in May, Huckabee raised his hand when the candidates were asked if any of them did not believe in evolution.

So what?

Huckabee was asked a question and he answered. It’s not as if he said it in the context of advancing legislation that would ban the teaching of evolution or require the teaching of Creationism.

Is the mere belief in something other than evolution now grounds for disqualifying a person from the White House?

Even if you think the answer to that question should be yes, why is it kosher to mock the guy’s religious beliefs?

If all that weren’t enough, as it turns out, the NJDC is not only mocking his religious beliefs – it’s distorting them. On at least two occasions, Huckabee has clarified that by answering no to evolution, he was rejecting the idea of a Godless creation process (see two clips below). Is the Earth billions of years old? Are human beings descended from primates? Maybe, but then God was directing the process, he says. And, either way, he asked, what does that have to do with being president?

One can certainly quibble with a view of evolution that puts God in the driver’s seat, but then you’re quibbling with what I suspect is a mainstream view among Americans of various political and religious stripes.

1 Comment | Share This | 2008 Election, Hate

‘Obama Girl’ takes on Coulter

By Ami Eden · October 29, 2007

Laura Kaufman, the voice of ’Obama Girl,’ gets all Jewey in her takedown of Ann Coulter.

1 Comment | Share This | Hate, video

Does the NYT Magazine have a Jewish problem?

By Ami Eden · October 25, 2007

JTA’s Ami Eden wants to know.

13 Comments | Share This | Hate, Media